Adoption Pets

Special Notice to All of Our Potential Adopters

All adoptions are by appointment only.

Our adoption pets are being cared for at Paws Here Awhile Pet Resort, a boarding and grooming facility. All adoptions are scheduled around the boarding pets scheduled activity times in order to ensure our vacationers receive the personal attention they require. During the peak boarding season, the Paws Here Awhile Pet Resort cannot house dogs for adoption. We are passionate about rescuing great pets and matching them with great homes. Maintaining a workable schedule that accommodates both our boarders and our adoption dogs in the same facility is crucial. We appreciate your understanding of these limited appointment times. We provide homeless dogs/puppies the best opportunity to find a great home during our off season from September to May. Our cats and kittens are available all year round.

Every donation made goes towards helping animals get healthy and finding their forever homes. Please help us continue our efforts and donate what you can.

Adoptions at Paws Here Awhile Pet Resort: What is included?

We have crate packages available for purchase at a big savings. This includes a Life Stages Crate with growing divider, Quiet Time Pet Bed, 5 lbs of Fromm quality dog food, bowls, a rawhide and collar. Save $20.00 or more with our special offer!

Adoptions include: spayed/neutered, fully temperament tested, professionally groomed, vaccinated, de-wormed and micro-chipped, cats are FeLV/FIV tested, and dogs are heartworm tested. If you have an email address, you will receive free emergency pet insurance for one month through Home Again.

All of our pets for adoption are carefully temperament tested before arriving at the Pet Resort.

All of our adoption cats are dog friendly!

All of our adoption dogs receive basic training and crate training skills before being adopted.

A Behind the Scenes Look:How We Choose Adoptable Pets

This is a behind the scene article on how and what we do before the pets are ready to be adopted. We make it look so effortless when you are standing in our front office or in our play yard meeting one of our adoption pets. This article is going to let you in on a couple of our secrets to our more than effortless ways.

We usually spend at least 3-4 hours at a shelter looking for dogs and cats that are place-able to our standards. This simply means they have to pass our multiple behavioral tests.Some of our criteria are as follows:

Must be good with other animals (cats & dogs)

Can't be food aggressive

Must be good with kids

Judge overall behavior, such as how bonded they are with people.

We also test to see if they are playful, well-mannered and what past training they might have had.

We will not choose a dog if he/she cannot pass the dog/cat socialization test. For example, all of our dogs are tested with what we call our "tester kitty." Usually, this is a kitten that is not afraid of dogs at all. Since we put this poor unsuspected kitten through our meet and greet dog testing, we always bring it with us as one of our adoptable pets. Don't worry, we do not put our "tester kitty" in danger. We are very experienced and careful!!!

Our dogs are also tested for how bonded they can become. We judge the bonding connection they have to people by taking them off leash and observing the amount of interest they have in interacting with us. This is an extremely important test. It will tell you if the dog can easily be trained and if they are more interested in bonding with you or if they are just out to run and do their own thing. The end result makes our decision final as to whether we are going to take this pet for placement or not. If a dog is not interested in us or shows no signs of interest in what we are doing or saying, these dogs, in our eyes, are not adoptable pets. These dogs possess the potential of being a problem and we avoid that.

We also test for food aggression. We use a fake hand in this test (we like our fingers in one piece, thank you very much!). We place delicious canned food in front of the dog to see how eager they are and then take the food away with our fake hand to check for aggression. We will do this with other dogs present and 2 food dishes side by side with 2 dogs or in the same dish. This test is not taken lightly. We really push buttons so we can be sure there is no aggression. This is especially important since the dog may be adopted into a home with a child or another dog.

The cats we test sell themselves. If they know how to turn it on (i.e. be super friendly and snuggly) we will consider them. This part is extremely difficult as there are so many cats to choose from and most are extremely loving. Some of these cats are in small cages for up to 6 or 8 months. These cats do not deserve to live in those cramped conditions. Amazingly enough, they are not resentful or angry at all. They will purr and grab for attention in a desperate need to get out of there and find someone that will love and care for them. This is unconditional love!! We cannot take all the cats that are asking so lovingly to go with us. Some are sick to the point of no return or the recovery period is just not feasible for us. We have to make really tough decisions and take the cats and kittens that we know have an edge to sell themselves in any environment.

Cats can be hard to take to adoption events because unless they are out-going and comfortable in strange places, they can be really hard to place. As a result of our high personality demands, most of our cats and kittens have wonderful outgoing personalities.

Once we have our crew of homeless pets (and we do mean a crew since our average taking is 4 to 8 dogs and 6 to 10 cats), we head back to Paws Here Awhile Pet Resort where the real work begins: getting them ready for adoption!